A vehicle infotainment system or vehicle telematics unit can simultaneously establish a plurality of short-range wireless communication links with other wireless devices, such as smart phones or tablets. Traditionally, the vehicle telematics unit can act as a server while the other wireless devices each act as a client to the server. But some wireless devices may attempt to establish a short-range wireless link with the vehicle telematics unit acting not as a client but rather as a server. This action can disrupt the short-range wireless links previously-established when the vehicle telematics unit operated as the server such that the connections can be lost. It is not reasonable to expect that all wireless devices will establish short-range wireless links using the same protocol. Thus, it can be helpful to manage new short-range communication links while maintaining existing short-range communication links in a way that the new link is established without disrupting the existing ones.